


Lengths

by Anonymous



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Ending, Character Study, Diary/Journal, Gen, Good Hans (Disney), Hans Being Less of an Asshole (Disney), Morally Grey Hans (Disney), POV First Person, POV Hans (Disney), Unreliable Narrator, Well - Freeform, hans doesnt have fire powers but uh, youll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24414625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: (Submitted with a cover letter to Cambrick Yard. If you're reading this, I didn't plagiarise.)Princess Anna has ginger hair. Tonight she wore it in a bun up behind her head, with a braid across the top. I approached her to dance, and she accepted.I stole the entire night from her. She is young and stupid and hopelessly adorable. She tends to interrupt without meaning to, but several times she managed to fully articulate what I had already intended to say before I had even begun to express it. I like her. She sings well and eats without a shred of shame.(canon divergence with a twist)
Relationships: (one-sided), Anna/Hans (Disney)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26
Collections: Anonymous





	Lengths

**Author's Note:**

> Hans spells Kristoff's name wrong because I find it amusing.
> 
> I don't know anyone's canon age, and I don't care to find out. You can do some math if you want to know Hans's age in this.

The day before the coronation of the new Queen

I figure such a historic occasion warrants a new journal, and I've been sewing pages into my previous one for several weeks now.

I purchased this book from a cart in Arendelle for far too much money, but the cover is stamped leather with a pattern of clouds and wind. I liked it.

I am Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. I am going to be great someday.

* * *

Coronation day, afternoon.

I met the Princess Anna today after an unfortunate mishap. She was younger than I expected. I knew she was four years my junior, but I suppose I never translated that into her being a child.

At the coronation afterwards, I observed that the Crown Princess Elsa was reluctant to take her gloves off. For that reason, I happened to be paying attention as frost climbed the scepter while she held it in her bare hands. I would not have noticed had she not glanced down.

This makes my original hopes impossible, leaving me with one open avenue to pursue: the Princess Anna.

One problem: Princess Anna is fifteen, and her sister (the Queen!) is dangerous. I am starting to question whether this endeavor is truly worth the risk and discomfort to all parties.

On another subject, my guest quarters are exceedingly comfortable. If this is how Arendelle's guests stay, how luxurious must the rooms be for their monarchs? For their princes and princesses?

The curiosity pulls at my gut as I go to take a rest before the ball tonight.

* * *

Coronation day, evening.

Princess Anna has ginger hair. Tonight she wore it in a bun up behind her head, with a braid across the top. I approached her to dance, and she accepted.

I stole the entire night from her. She is young and stupid and hopelessly adorable. She tends to interrupt without meaning to, but several times she managed to fully articulate what I had already intended to say before I had even begun to express it. I like her. She sings well and eats without a shred of shame.

She was quite taken with me. She has asked to see me again. Frankly, I am hesitant. I know that it would be in my interests to accept, and to woo her, but I cannot see anything but a child when I look at her. Perhaps this is stupid. I think my father would say it is stupid. Children grow, and surely one day the Princess will be a woman as beautiful as they say her mother was.

That does not make me feel comfortable, still.

I was right to avoid her sister. Queen Elsa refused every offer of a dance and spent the night alone.

* * *

Coronation day, deep in the night.

I need to reiterate my previous point. I was quite right to avoid the Queen. She has fled.

According to the Duke of Weselton, she used her powers to attack him as he pursued. I was with Princess Anna at the time

I should start from the beginning.

Soon after I retired to my temporary quarters, Princess Anna knocked on my door and explained she had wanted to introduce me to the Queen. I accepted. To be honest, I was curious. The gloves and the frost intrigued me.

Queen Elsa was cordial. There was a hesitation before she extended her hand, and even before she lashed out at her sister, I had my suspicions.

I get ahead of myself.

The Queen and the Princess conversed about the party and the gates. Princess Anna said that she wished the gates could always stay open. The Queen agreed, but then said that they couldn't. Princess Anna asked why. The Queen tried to end the conversation.

It may have been my fault. Princess Anna was looking down at the floor. I think she would have let Queen Elsa go. I don't know why I did it, but I reached out to the Queen.

I was quite overstepping my bounds, and she was right to order me away. Princess Anna did not see it that way.

The princess ended up with one of Queen Elsa's gloves. I wasn't thinking. I took off one of my gloves when Princess Anna wouldn't return her sister's, and I held mine out to the Queen, but as she reached for it, Princess Anna stepped between us and demanded the Queen explain.

Before I knew it, there was ice everywhere, and it was a while before I remembered to put my own glove back on.

In the meantime, I remained with Anna while the Duke pursued the Queen. After barely a minute, the Princess insisted on following. We lost the Queen when she crossed the water.

I watched the fjord freeze with a sound lower, deeper, and larger than anything I had ever heard before. I understood then why my father was so strict regarding magic. None of his precautions from my youth seem silly anymore-- rather, I am grateful for them.

It began to snow. I escorted the Princess back to the castle. The Duke was beside himself. He accused Princess Anna of sorcery.

I find him disgusting. He knows nothing of sorcery. All he knows is fear.

Too much happened tonight to write down. I am running out of time. Princess Anna has decided to retrieve her sister. I wanted to tell her how ridiculous that was, but propriety stopped my tongue. I have minutes before she will leave. I convinced her to pack supplies and warm clothing. She is leaving me in charge.

I will be very busy until she returns, it seems.

Now the Queen is gone. The Princess has followed. The sky is screaming with an unnatural blizzard. Arendelle is in my hands.

* * *

The morning after Coronation Day.

Princess Anna's horse returned in the night without her. We are setting out to find her. I've ordered the Duke to stay behind.

* * *

Evening, same day.

So much has happened. In all my years keeping journals, I have never had such a daunting task as recording all that has passed since my last entry.

It has barely been half a day.

Queen Elsa's winter may have doomed the Princess. I don't understand the details, only that soon after I returned with the Queen in custody, the Princess was brought to my door in a sorry state, shivering, hair turning white to match the Queen's.

She explained very poorly, and I still don't understand any details, but she wanted me to kiss her. She said that only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.

I have no idea how she got the idea that I loved her, only that she is fifteen and stupid and was so eager to spend time with me during the party that it unsettled me. I told her I was not in love with her, but she insisted. She said that she was going to die otherwise. I disregarded her raving and ordered the servants to build up the fire. She must not have been thinking clearly, because aside from the white hair, her symptoms were a perfect match for hypothermia. I think she must be making up stories because she doesn't want to face the reality that her sister has doomed the crops and sent her kingdom plummeting towards ruin.

I thought she was too weak to move all that far, and I made the mistake of getting too close to hand her a mug of warm tea. She sat up and kissed me.

I left after that. I hope that when she has recovered she doesn't credit her health to that kiss.

Again I've told the story in the wrong order, though. Earlier today, before we retrieved the queen, I...

I fought a giant ice monster.

I fought a giant ice monster with a sword.

The queen was attacked by a pair of soldiers while I fought the giant. I spoke to them quite sternly afterwards, and discovered that the crooked Duke had ordered them to kill her.

When I was able to approach the chamber where the queen was attacked, I found her with an arm outstretched towards one of the men. I called out to her. I was able to convince her to stand down.

There is a problem.

Queen Elsa cannot undo the winter. At the moment, she remains in a cell while Princess Anna recovers. 

I will sleep on the issue.

* * *

The next morning, two days after Coronation Day. 

The Duke of Weselton died in the night. May he be granted peace in the next life.

Platitudes aside, this is a relief. I was able to order the Queen released. She went to see the Princess a few minutes ago.

* * *

Later

Everything has gone wrong. Queen Elsa has informed me that Princess Anna's condition has not improved. I went to see the Princess. Her hair is white. Her eyes are shut. She does not move, not even to shiver. Her breath fogs the air.

I fear she will die.

The ice merchant that gave her transport back to the castle chose that moment to break in, and he explained that an act of true love will indeed save the Princess.

Queen Elsa looked at me. I don't know why.

Kristof (the ice merchant) asked me why I had not saved her yet. Anna overstated our relationship to him. I corrected the misunderstanding.

* * *

The same night.

Princess Anna has died. Queen Elsa tried to flee, but I stopped her. Without her, the kingdom will fall. I am not a strong enough leader to keep Arendelle in order through this crisis of misplaced winter. I do not have the trust of the people.

The Princess's burial is scheduled for tomorrow at noon.

This afternoon, I took stock of the kingdom's resources. We have enough fuel to last two months before freezing to death, but if we want to make it through the true winter, we need summer back within a week. That's assuming a short, mild winter this year.

Things are not looking good.

* * *

The next day (3 days after Coronation)

When I was young, and my father judged my penmanship acceptable enough to begin journaling, he explained to me that a journal is not a place to store secrets. It is not a confidant. It is a concise, polite record of my life that will be read in the future by my descendants, and no state secrets or improper thoughts are to be written in its pages.

I am beginning to doubt that I will ever have descendants. Sorry, Father, but I need a confidant.

Firstly, I killed the Duke. He sent goons to murder me in my bed the night of the coronation, after everything went wrong, and he would have gotten away with it had I been able to sleep at all. I poisoned him the next evening. He was going to have the Queen killed.

I may consider her dangerous, but I do not think it appropriate to commit regicide without exhausting all other possible solutions.

Secondly, I came to Arendelle with the intent to woo Queen Elsa and become King. I am not unique in this; I believe the late Duke had the same goals, and he is more horrid than I considering his age. The Queen was not open, and I didn't find myself despicable enough to take advantage of her sister.

And somehow the power fell into my hands regardless.

My fingers are going numb. I am going to put another log onto the fire.

In a few minutes I will go with the Queen to prepare Princess Anna's body for burial. I do not feel that I have any right to do so, but the Queen has requested my assistance, and I do not have any way to refuse.

Why did Princess Anna think we were in love?

* * *

Later.

The Queen showed me how to braid Anna's hair. Neither of us took our gloves off. There was one moment when the hair slipped out of my hands and I had to start over. Queen Elsa giggled.

Forgive me, but she sounded beautiful.

There was no blizzard today, and the Queen looked quite tired. I think we may be able to outlast her. I think she will not be able to sustain this winter forever. It has to end eventually.

* * *

Just after noon.

We tried to bury the princess. The ground was frozen solid. The Queen turned away.

For now, the princess's body is in an unused, unheated room. She will be buried at the earliest opportunity once summer returns.

The weather was clear today. Deceptively so. It looked like it should be warm, but it was bitingly cold. Cold enough to turn your lips and the tip of your nose blue in a mere few seconds. The sky was the color of a robin's egg. Like it stole that from spring too.

My father didn't approve of poetry. He preferred concise writing. But I prefer to describe things in a way that conveys the heart of them. So: the cold eats through our fuel like an errant princess at the fondue table of a party. The Queen is as silent as the plot where we couldn't dig Anna's grave.

We are waiting for this winter to end.

* * *

Next day. (4th)

Maybe if I were a worse person, Anna and I would have fallen in love, and she would still be alive.

* * *

Next day. (5th)

I saw the Queen looking at my gloves today. She told me of visiting rock trolls in the forest with her parents when she was little, the first time she hurt her sister.

She told me they said fear would be her enemy.

The Queen looks more afraid with every hour that passes. I feel it too. Soon there will be no point to keeping gloves on for anyone; the cold will freeze our fingers off regardless. And I begin to reach the end of my considerable patience.

The cold is unbearable. I haven't felt warm in ages. I cannot take much more of this. Keeping warm takes more fuel than I figured. We have far less time than I thought.

I will have to do something soon.

Kristof the ice merchant has an interesting sense of humor.

* * *

Next day. (6th)

I have to do something. It is so cold. The people are complaining. We are running through our fuel at an alarming pace. I've asked Kristof to show me to the rock trolls everyone seems to have met besides me. Perhaps they will be able to help.

* * *

Later.

We are doomed.

The trolls spoke of a broken bridge. I don't know what it means, but I do know one thing: the winter will not stop until Queen Elsa and her sister are reunited. The trolls were clear enough about that.

I still hold hope that the winter will end soon. We could recover if summer returned tomorrow.

* * *

Next day. (7th)

Early this morning, Queen Elsa died of a broken heart. I woke up sweltering to the sound of cicadas.

I could not help myself. I went outside immediately.

The ground was soft. The air was warm and fragrant. I could breathe without feeling ice form in my nostrils. The breezes blew so happily I had to take off my gloves to feel them on my hands.

I nearly got carried away.

We buried the Queen and the Princess after breakfast. I braided the Queen's hair in the same style as her sister's because it was all I knew, and it made her look much younger than eighteen.

They were both so young. Anna's death causes me the most sadness, because she was so bright and surprising I think I would have liked to be her friend.

But Elsa's death makes me feel the most alone.

* * *

Next day. (8th after Coronation Day, 2nd of summer)

No one has challenged my leadership, and I have no idea why. I feel like the very earth is holding its breath.

Perhaps everyone is just relieved to see the summer again.

I had to make my own dinner tonight because several of the cooks are sick. It reminded me of hunting trips with my father and my brothers. He taught me how to cook an egg, and when I ruined everything, he held my hands and showed me how to do it right from then on.

I would like to know how to do things right from here.

* * *

Next day. (3rd of summer)

People are falling ill. There is a plague. I am too busy to write much. This is the worst luck I've ever had.

* * *

Next day. (4th)

I don't think it's luck.

Firstly, the water we draw up from our wells has a sickly yellow glow, like pus. Secondly, it buzzes with magic and smells of death.

With that in mind, I have to confess I killed Queen Elsa. In my defense, I think she allowed me to do so.

The other night, I decided I had to act. I made hot chocolate for the Queen. It took so much fuel to heat up, but I figured we would all die either way if it didn't work, so I may as well waste the wood on this. 

When I brought it to her, she looked down at it and then back up at me. I felt an uneasy jolt along the edge of my spine as our eyes met. I think she knew what I had put into the drink.

Yet she lifted it to her lips and drank.

Regicide is a terrible crime. I think the spirits are angry. Magic itself must want to destroy me. I have no idea what would happen if I took my gloves off now.

* * *

Next day. (5th)

Our reserve of clean water disappeared overnight. Are the spirits targeting me, or the kingdom as a whole? If I die, will the sickness stop?

Does magic care who committed the crime?

I am thirsty, but only a normal amount. I am not desperate yet. Still, it is unbearable, because of the awareness that I will not be able to drink again. There is no more water.

There are no clouds in the sky, and it seems unlikely that rain will come.

I suppose I could try, but if I'm honest, I am afraid. I do not want to fail the way Queen Elsa did.

* * *

Next day. (6th)

I am so thirsty. I have been eating fruit solely for the water within.

I can't help feeling that everything would stop if I died.

Was this my fault?

I reached out to the Queen on the night of her coronation.

I did not open my heart to the Princess.

I poisoned the Queen.

And I have the audacity to sit in their palace kitchens eating fruit grown by others while everyone around me suffers.

Was it my fault?

Would I have fallen in love with Anna if she were older? If I didn't care about her youth? Could I have saved her?

* * *

Later.

I have locked myself in a room with no water. This is for several reasons.

I need to die. It is what the spirits demand. It is not something I can fight with a sword. It is what fate has chosen for me, and I am powerless to fight it. How could I fight? At the expense of everyone else in this kingdom, how can I imagine fighting?

If my body is never found, they cannot bury me. I don't deserve to rest beside the girls I killed.

If they do find me, they will find this journal. They will know what I have done, and they will not bury me beside the queen or the princess.

I'm too prideful to die the quick way. Instead, I've elected to prolong the suffering of everyone else while I waste away.

It is not good enough, this solution I have found. But it is all I can do.

* * *

Later. Possibly the next day. There are no windows here.

Anna showed me this room the night of the coronation party. The entrance is hidden behind several large drums of oil on the outside of the castle, and the only ventilation leads outside to the compost piles. That way the smell will not be an issue. I should not be found for a long while. I think I am the last person alive who knows of this chamber.

("Perfect spot to hide a body" is what Anna told me when she showed me this place. She was joking.)

This is probably my last chance to leave while I still have the strength. The castle must be in a frenzy at my disappearance.

I don't want them to find out what I have done. I am ashamed of myself and my failures. I should have ordered Anna to stay. She was only fifteen. I should have found some way to help her. I should have found a better way to stop the winter than murdering the Queen.

I was just so cold.

* * *

I am dying. It is slow, but I know it is happening. My throat is an itch that claws at the rest of me. It hurts.

At least I am not cold, like Anna.

I share more with Elsa. The poison would have hurt her throat this way. Perhaps if I had done better, we would have gotten along well.

I've taken my gloves off. I had forgotten the feeling of paper beneath my fingers. I used to love it.

I'm too weak to do anything but write, so I figure it doesn't matter.

* * *

When I was very little my father gave me the gloves. He told me not to fly. I found other ways to do it, ascending higher, writing in my journals with their flapping pages, watching the birds over the ocean our isles share with Arendelle.

He told me not to fly, and I listened.

But what if I had flown?

Would that have been so bad?

* * *

I want to fly. I miss the wind. My mouth is so dry. I feel like I cannot breathe.

I am going to die.

I am Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. I am the youngest of thirteen princes. My father showed me how to hide my hazards under gloves. I killed three people because I wasn't strong enough to find a better solution.

* * *

I am Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. I am going to die.

* * *

I am Prince Hans. I am dying. I am so thirsty. I miss birds and water. I miss chocolate fondue.

I miss my cat.

* * *

I am Hans. I am still alive, but I will be dead soon. I need water. I am so thirsty. Did I do this on purpose? Why didn't I bring water? What is wrong with me?

* * *

A joke Kristof told me is "How do you make friends with a reindeer? Be nice to him."

Nice like n-ice.

I told him it wasn't funny. He said my humor was too dry.

My everything is too dry.

I know I did something wrong, but I can't remember what. Thinking is too difficult. All I can pay attention to is my throat.

I would like to die now, please.

* * *

I am Hans. I am sorry.

* * *

sandwiches


End file.
